The Ultimate Choice
by Beastbot X
Summary: Sometimes, you have to decide what is more important: your principles... or victory. Twelfth in my Beast Wars series.
1. Part 1

The Ultimate Choice, Part One  
by Beastbot

  
_I stand alone  
Everything that I believe is fading..._  
-Godsmack, "I Stand Alone"

"Rhinox, we've got an incoming energy signature, bearing 0-2-45."

"Wonderful," Rhinox sighed, wheeling up behind Beastbot, who was manning the base's computers for the time being. "Scourge has finally come to finish us off..."

"'Ey!" Rattrap protested from several yards away, "I thought I was the only one allowed to be pessimistic around 'ere!"

A couple of the Maximals in the room chuckled, but Rhinox swiveled around, his face dead serious.

"A year earlier, you'd be right, Rattrap. But not now. If Scourge is already coming to finish us off, then we don't stand a chance. I'm through being optimistic; not in this war! We've lost Optimus, Cheetor, Depth Charge, Airazor, Silverbolt, Tigerhawk, Gryphtron..." Rhinox listed, his voice wavering more and more with each dead friend he mentioned. Finally, he stopped to collect himself, turning around to face the computer screens again.

"I...I was only joking, Rhinox..." Rattrap said quietly, taken aback by Rhinox's uncharacteristically angry outburst. Seeing Rhinox's back suddenly turned to him, Rattrap's head drooped and he walked out of the room.

"You've changed, Rhinox..." Rattrap threw over his shoulder, his tone a mixture of sadness and anger, "... and I don't think I like dat one bit."

Rhinox grunted and glanced again at the incoming dot on the screen signifying an energy signature.

"Run an allegiance scan on that, Beastbot," Rhinox gruffly stated. "Let's make sure it's not something even worse than a Pred..."

Beastbot complied wordlessly... until he saw the results, that is.

"It's... a Maximal!?"

Rhinox's face was a mixture of surprise and happiness. He was too speechless to say anything for the moment.

"Well, what we waiting for?" Grimlock hooted, filling in for Rhinox. "Me Grimlock say we go out there and get them back in!"

They all hurried outside the underground pyramid, squinting to see the figure flying towards them from the cavern's entrance.

"It's Airazor!" Blackarachnia exclaimed, "And Tigerhawk!"

Cheers erupted amongst the assembled Maximals as a struggling beast-moded Airazor flew up to them, her wings flapping furiously as she carried the stasis-locked form of Tigerhawk.

"Hurry up!" Airazor gasped out, skipping the formalities for now. "He's heavy!"

Dinobot and Triceradon hurried over and grabbed Tigerhawk's form from Airazor's trembling talons, quickly carrying the severely injured Maximal back into the pyramid for repairing.

"What happened?" Rhinox asked, wheeling up to Airazor, who had now landed. "We thought you were dead!"

"Apparently not," Airazor smiled. "I'll tell you, but let's get inside first. I need a bit of repairing- I think my legs are permanently stretched out, ooowwww...."

Rhinox laughed and motioned for Grimlock and Dinotron to help her back into the pyramid.

* * *

After her and Tigerhawk's time in the CR vats, Airazor finally got to explain to the other curious Maximals what had happened.

"Although I was nearly knocked offline by that fall, I remained conscious in the very core of my processor. It was very... odd. I could hear and feel everything that was going on around me, but I couldn't do anything about it.

"Regardless, my internal repair systems eventually kicked in, and my optics and motor systems eventually came on. I noticed that I was chained up against a wall, along with the other Maximals the Predacons had managed to take captive- Tigerhawk, Prowl, Gryphtron, and Silverbolt. I was surprised to find that the explosion created when I smacked into the ground had permanently charred and darkened my armor, which is why you see me as I am now. Fortunately, after a bit of struggling, I managed to get one of my hands lose- it seems that one of those Pred bozos had forgotten to tighten one of my manacles enough. From there, it was a piece of cake to undo the rest of my restraints. I rested there, on the floor of the cell, for several hours, slowly regaining my health back, thanks to a mostly-full energon cube a careless guard must have left in there, figuring we couldn't have reached it anyway. Apparently, the Preds were confident enough in their ability to restrain us that they didn't check up on us often- no one entered the cell for over a day.

"Eventually, though, one of them did show up. Almost fully recovered by then, I managed to gun down the surprised Pred-head and quickly slipped out the open doorway, sneaking through the hallways and gunning down the occasional Predacon until I made it to the main base doors. Satisfied that most of the Predacons were apparently at their own base, and not occupying our own, I hurried back and grabbed Tigerhawk before making my way back here, thanks to his directions. It took a while, as there were several caves in the general area where he said you guys were headed, but I eventually made it here. My only regret is that I didn't have the strength to carry the other three captives back as well," Airazor finished, hanging her head in sorrow.

"It's okay, Airazor," Ironhide said, patting the bird-bot on the back. "Yah did what yah could've. Yer only one bot, after all."

"Eh, you have to give da Preds some credit, though," Rattrap said, "Widout dere bumblin' and carelessness, you'd never have made it out of dere alive, bird-lady."

"Amen to that," Airazor chuckled. "So, now what? What's the sitch?"

"Not good," Rhinox muttered. "We're severely outnumbered by the Preds, we're stuck in this abandoned alien site with a limited supply of energon, and it's only a matter of time before Scourge and his troops attack us again full force."

"And this time, we have no where to run..." Grimlock said bitterly.

"I suppose we COULD try to free our comrades..." Rattrap stated, "... But I don't see the point, really, as we'll all be dead within the week anyway."

"Shut up, Rattrap," Blackarachnia said. "It's definitely worth a shot- what do you all think?"

"We need all the troops we can get," Rhinox admitted.

"Great!" Blackarachnia said, obviously eager to rescue her boyfriend. "I'm definitely coming along- I'm a master of stealth."

"Eh, don't flatter yerself, Legs," Rattrap said. "We'll need a REAL master a' stealth on this mission- in other words, I'm comin'."

"Puh-leeze," Ramulus smirked. "Let a real professional handle the job, guys."

Rhinox glared at Ramulus. "Ramulus, you are NOT going."

"What?! Don't you trust me?" Ramulus asked.

"Of course not," Rhinox retorted. "We're allies because of necessity, nothing else. And that goes for Beastbot, too."

The aforementioned bounty hunters angrily stormed off in a huff, obviously not wanting to get into a "discussion" with Rhinox right now.

"Rattrap," Rhinox continued, ignoring their exit, "You're staying here. The last thing we need is you and Blackarachnia bickering during the mission."

Blackarachnia smirked at Rattrap, who just rolled his optics.

"As for the other members of our little sortie, let's get three more- four should be enough for this mission, but any more would be pushing it. Airazor, you're coming along, since you seem to know more about where the Predacons post their guards in our old base, and if they've made any changes to the layout since we've left. Grimlock, you too, since we'll need some brute force."

Grimlock merely smiled as best he could beneath his faceplate and punched his fist into his open hand.

"Airraptor, you've been programmed with excellent marksmanship abilities, according to the Vexoran's backup data files on you. Not to mention you're another flyer. You'll be going along, too."

Airraptor merely nodded in acceptance.

"Alright, then it's settled," Rhinox said. "However, I need to talk you four before you leave. Come with me, please."

The four Maximals looked at each other in confusion for a moment before following their leader.

* * *

All five Maximals filed into the small room, closing the door after them, and took a seat at a small table. The seats were obviously made for Vexorans, not Transformers, given their structure, but the Maximals had learned to take what they could get by now.

"What's this all about, Rhinox?" Airazor asked curiously, settling into her uncomfortable seat. "If it's about my ability to lead the force into our old base, I can guarantee you-"

"It's not that," Rhinox assured, "But it does have to do with something that I only want you all to know about, at least right now. I fear that if I told all of the other Maximals about it this early in the game, there'd be a big controversy, and I don't want that."

The rest of the assembled Maximals raised their eyebrows at this.

"Now," Rhinox continued, "I have another sub-mission for you all to complete while you're at our old base. I've been doing some research over the past solar cycle, delving deep into old records stored in this site to see if I could come up with anything useful. You see, I've found that the new Dinobots- Triceradon, Dinotron, Striker, and you, Airraptor- were not Maximals at the beginning. You were originally programmed as a "blank" protoform, and then the Vexorans sent a particular energy surge through your systems, converting your default programming to Maximal. Why, I can only guess- for experiment purposes, I suppose. Nighteye refuses to tell me any information pertaining to this subject. Regardless, one of the electrical components in the scanners back at the base, if I tweak it correctly and connect it to the appropriate instruments, could sent out a similar pulse-charge-"

"Hold it," Airazor said, figuring out what Rhinox was getting at. "Do you mean that you're going to be able to convert the Predacon masses... into Maximals?"

"Exactly!" Rhinox grinned. "It'll take a little while to put it together, of course, and it'll have a limited range. But if we can get all the Predacon forces in this cavern before we activate it- which I'm sure will happen eventually, whenever they decide to attack- then the scales of balance will be irrevocably turned, and we can finally win the Beast Wars!"

"Me don't know..." Grimlock piped up. "If we just up and change Predacons' programming without consent, then not we just as bad as them?"

"That's exactly what I was thinking," Blackarachnia commented. "Rhinox, although this would almost ensure victory, there's got to be some other means to achieve it. This doesn't seem... right... to me. I mean, there's no way I'd let my Pred programming be tampered with, Maximal or not."

Airraptor frowned and nodded his agreement.

"I dunno, I see where Rhinox is coming from," Airazor admitted. "I mean, this is it, 'bots. We've got nowhere to run, nowhere to hide, and I'm sure it's less than a week before Scourge and his forces finally manage to come for us."

"There, see? Airazor gets it," Rhinox said. "Look, we're out of options. If there were any other way in which I could see us winning, I'd choose it. But there isn't. It's all or nothing, here. We've got nothing to lose and everything to gain."

Blackarachnia's and Grimlock's optics turned towards the ground, both of them still obviously standing by their sentiments.

Rhinox sighed. "Look, I'll confess something. I didn't just pick you 'bots because of your skills for completing this mission. With the exception of Ramulus and Beastbot- who I don't trust at all- I thought you four would be the most understanding of my methods, here. Blackarachnia, you've dealt with the difficulties of your Predacon programming in the past. You know how difficult it can be for a Predacon to convert to a Maximal without reprogramming. Grimlock, you're a battle veteran- or, at least, a cloned duplicate of a battle veteran. You realize that, in certain situations, you've got to do things you normally wouldn't do in order to make the world a better place. Airraptor, you were "forced" into Maximal programming so to speak- but you don't seem to be suffering from any bad or unwanted side effects, do you? And Airazor- you've seen how merciless the Preds can be, and how much better things would be if they were all Maximals. Come on, 'bots- what do you say?"

The three non-consenting 'bots sighed simultaneously and looked back at Rhinox.

"Alright, Rhinox," Blackarachnia said. "For you."

"Me guess it alright just this one time," Grimlock admitted.

Airraptor nodded and smiled.

"You know I'm in," Airazor commented.

"Wonderful," Rhinox smiled. "Alright, 'bots, let's get to it! Let me show you what device you need to extract..."

* * *

Scourge smirked.

"Looks like everything is going according to plan so far, Scarem."

"Whadaya mean, 'everything's going according to plan'? Rhinox has found out a way to turn our entire force into Maximals! How is that a GOOD thing!?"

Scourge and Scarem were both in the former's private chambers, watching a small screen intently. Scourge had made sure to hook up his creation with small radio and visual transmitters before he had sent her off to rescue Tigerhawk. As such, Scourge and Scarem could see and hear everything Eclipse saw or heard via a specially-equipped viewscreen.

"Oh, I admit it's not my preferred way of taking the Maximals out," Scourge admitted, "But, life happens. You have to learn to adjust your plans accordingly."

"Well, then what... Ooooh, I get what you're planning," Scarem said, smiling. "You're gonna let Eclipse lead the other Maximals into a trap! Once they're in their old base, we'll let loose with all the Predacons we've got! Heheh, I like the way you think..."

"An admirable effort, Scarem, but no," Scourge replied, smirking at his brother's dumbfounded expression. "I have something much more... devastating planned for them."

"However," Scourge said, standing up and stretching, "first things first. All of our troops are completely repaired, re-energized, and have their weapons ready?"

"Uh... y-yes, Scourge," Scarem stammered, a little taken aback at Scourge's abrupt and rather unexpected change of subject. "B-but..."

"Good," Scourge interrupted, apparently unaware that he did so, "Prepare to move out within the megacycle."

"You mean...?"

"Yes, Scarem. We're ready to commence the final assault."

* * *

Injector hated Scourge.

Not that he could do much about it, really. With those slagging pestilence missiles of his, Scourge could completely disintegrate Injector without breaking a sweat, and the bee/lionfish fuzor knew it.

Of course, WHY Injector hated Scourge was simple.

Scourge had sent Injector to be one of a handful of Predacons used as Maximal target practice.

Injector had to admit, the idea did have its merits. Have a skeleton crew remain at the Maximal's old base outside the Ark, just to give the impression that nothing was going on when the Maximal team broke in any cycle now.

Of course, the skeleton crew were probably all going to be shot into stasis lock. "Such was the price of deception," Scourge had said.

And Injector was posted as the base guard for the time being.

What Injector hated even more than the idea that he was target practice, though, was that he was probably going to miss the big battle coming up any decacycle now.

Suddenly and without warning, Injector heard a whistling noise come from behind a rock outcropping several hundred yards away, and machine gun bullets suddenly embedded themselves in between his eyes.

Injector didn't even have time to contemplate how much he hated his life before he hit the ground in stasis lock.

* * *

"That was easier than I'd thought it'd be," Blackarachnia commented brightly as she hauled Silverbolt's unconscious form away from the base.

"Well, like I said earlier," Airazor replied, fingering the electrode she had removed from the base's scanners, "Scourge obviously can't keep that good of an eye on so many lazy troops. Score one for the Maximals!"

Airraptor and Grimlock, carrying Gryphtron and Prowl on their backs, exchanged a knowing glance amongst themselves as they followed behind the two females.

* * *

"Alright, now screw the radiator into the electromagnetic wave emitter, and you're finished," Rhinox told Nighteye. The former, in his makeshift body, had no hands, so he had to manually tell Nighteye how to assemble the device that was to be used.

"Done," Nighteye said, tightening the last screw. "You DO know, Rhinox, that this is crazy."

"As Optimus used to say, 'sometimes crazy works'," Rhinox sighed. "We've only got one shot at this. Once all the Preds are in this cavern, I'll activate the device via hookup. If everything goes according to plan, the device will emit a one-time pulse of just the right frequency that will short out any Predacon in the cavern, replacing their core code with Maximal programming. Unfortunately, the surge will short-circuit the device Airazor managed to scavenge from our old base scanner, and it won't work again. On top of that, I don't know of where we could find another electrode like that, anyway."

Nighteye let out a low whistle. "Man, this is sure gonna be cutting it close. You've given Blackarachnia, Waspinator, and Dinobot their resistance chips? I'm sure they have no desire to have their core programming converted when there's no real need to."

"I've given Blackarachnia hers," Rhinox replied, "And I've managed to get Airraptor to sneak a chip on the latter two while they were sleeping. I don't want to alert them to my idea just yet. As far as the other Maximals know, our team of four went on a rescue mission, and nothing else."

"You're sure you don't want to let this out until after it happens?" Nighteye questioned. "I mean, I'm alright with it, but you could be facing mutiny from some of your more honor-bound members."

"Better than facing mutiny before the battle happens than after," Rhinox sighed. "I'm sorry if some of them don't see what needs to be done, but they're not in charge for the time being, I am. If they're too stubborn to be able to know possible victory when they see it, well, then I can't help them there."

Nighteye quirked an eyebrow at that. "Rattrap's right, Rhinox. You HAVE changed. From what I've seen of the old you, you'd have never said something like that."

"Well, war changes 'bots," Rhinox admitted. "However, I think that in this case, it's changed me for the better. I've grown to realize that sometimes you can't always please other 'bots, and you have to just go with what you know logically to be the only way out."

"Are Silverbolt, Gryphtron, and Prowl fully healed by now?" Nighteye questioned, hooking up the makeshift device to a power circuit.

"Yep," Rhinox said, "They're a bit shaken up after being in stasis lock for so long, but they'll be fine."

"Well," Nighteye responded, "I think that-"

The Transmetal 2 owl was interrupted by Rattrap's distant panicked holler from the main room of the pyramid.

"We've got dozens of Pred signatures, inbound! Dis is it, 'bots!"

"And not a moment too soon," Rhinox whistled. "Nighteye, you go out and help defend the pyramid. Once all the Preds are inside the cavern, I'm going to let 'er loose."

Nighteye nodded and quickly transformed, flying off towards the main room.

* * *

Rattrap, being the temporary second-in-command, mentally counted up all of the Maximals running out of the pyramid to face the still rather distant Predacon armada. A couple of shots were starting to be exchanged, though, as the distances quickly lessened.

He noticed something odd, though.

"Hey," Rattrap nudged Dinobot, who was firing his eye-beams sporadically at the incoming Predacons. "Where's Airazor?"

"Airazor" quickly but quietly crept down the now-empty hallways of the inner pyramid, searching for a lighted room.

She found it.

Glancing in the room, she found Rhinox's back turned to her, all of his attention focused on the device ahead of him.

"Hey, Rhinox!" Nighteye's voice crackled through the Maximal's comlink, "The guests are all here! Let 'er loose, and hurry!"

"You've got it!" Rhinox replied eagerly, hooking himself up to the device. "Here we go, Nighteye!"

Eclipse leveled her talon-guns at Rhinox and fired.


	2. Part 2

The Ultimate Choice, Part Two  
by Beastbot

Eclipse's machine gun pellets slammed into Rhinox's backside, catching him completely unawares. Most of the fire was directed towards the upper part of his body, and before Rhinox could turn around and return fire, the monitor screen that served as both a visual input and output for his system blinked off, leaving Rhinox effectively blind.

"Hey, what the-!" Rhinox yelled, both in anger, surprise, and pain. (Luckily, his output speakers were still working.) His torso quickly swiveled around to face the direction the machine gun bullets had come from. However, he had no idea Eclipse was attacking him, as he had had no glimpse of her before his visual input had shut off.

He didn't have time to find out, however. Yelling in rage, Rhinox blindly fired at his attacker. Eclipse took a few hits to her right side, but quickly managed to dodge out of the way of the clumsy fire. Aiming her machine gun-talons at Rhinox's midsection, she let loose another volley of bullets, this time hitting her target in a critical area.

Rhinox collapsed to the ground, his systems giving out on him one by one. Before he completely blacked out, Eclipse heard him mumble something about déjà vu, and then everything was silent.

Her work was not done, however. Eclipse walked up to the gizmo Rhinox had planned to activate and activated her comlink.

* * *

Nighteye braced himself for the shockwave that Rhinox's device would emit as it went off.

And waited.

And waited.

And finally reopened his optics again, only to be greeted with the battle still going on in front of him.

Worried, Nighteye quickly activated his comlink while dodging an incoming missile.

"Rhinox, what's going on? What's wrong with the- Rhinox? RHINOX!? Slaggit all!" Nighteye cursed, kicking the rock in front of him in frustration.

"Ow... bad idea," Nighteye gasped, clutching his foot. "That's it...."

Activating his com, Nighteye managed to get Blackarachnia on the other end. She was actually only about two dozen feet away, but the battle was getting so noisy there was no way they could have carried on a conversation at that distance now.

"Nighteye, what? Can't you see I'm- urgh- busy!?"

"Blackarachnia, something's gone on with Rhinox. I can't contact him."

"That is NOT good..."

"I know. I'm going back in there to find out what's going on."

"Be- TAKE THAT- careful!" Blackarachnia responded, pausing to return fire.

"There's no time for caution anymore," Nighteye muttered as he shut off the comlink and flew back into the base amidst cover fire from Blackarachnia.

* * *

_I never thought it would be so thrilling to actually watch a battle from the rear lines... I don't even have to worry about getting shot at, since my forces outnumber the Maximals so much!_ Scourge was interrupted from his battlefield observations by the familiar beep of his comlink.

"Yes, what is it?"

"Scourge, sir! It's Eclipse! I've managed to take out Rhinox!"

Scourge sighed in relief. "Good, that's a load off of my mind. You remember your instructions, correct?"

"Affirmative. The device appears to be run by both power from the base and an internal battery. Completely electricity-driven."

"Hmm, this may make it harder, then. Disconnect the power supply and then switch the chips while diverting the internal current to..."

Scourge and Eclipse continued their tech-speak, Eclipse following every instruction of Scourge's to the letter.

* * *

Rattrap kicked a large ankylosaurus off of him, shooting the Predacon in the optics to momentarily blind it as Dinobot grabbed it by the tail and hurled it away from the base.

Amidst fending off various Predacons, Rattrap could see that the battle was NOT going well- not that that was much of a surprise, really. Tripredacus and Magnaboss had gone after each other, naturally, and both were now basically taking turns punching each other.

That was the only battle that seemed to be evenly matched, however. Bruticus, the huge three-headed guardian of the alien site, was smashing Predacons left and right, but there were simply too many of them, even for him. Since Bruticus was obviously one of the greatest threats, the Predacons were concentrating on him first- in fact, over a dozen were now hanging off of the huge bot, hacking or blasting away at his armor. One of Bruticus' arms had already been rendered useless, and two more were also well on their way to oblivion.

Gryphtron had been severely injured in a joint attack by two aerial Preds, and Rattrap realized that Tigerhawk and Triceradon couldn't cover him for much longer, as they too were weakening rapidly. The rest of the Maximals were in similar situations- holding their own, but just barely, and it obviously wasn't going to last much longer.

Rattrap had hoped for a miracle similar to what had happened the last time they were in this situation, but he quickly saw that there was no way out this time. They were corned in this large, dead-end cavern, with the only way out being blocked by a mass of Predacons, including Scourge himself, who Rattrap knew better than to mess with.

"We're...really... all going to die..." Rattrap said waveringly, half-heartedly throwing another of his grenades at an incoming Predacon.

"For once, Rattrap, you get no argument from me," Dinobot growled while shooting his eye beams at the same Pred.

_He actually called me Rattrap... yep, this is definitely my last day among the living..._

* * *

"Hands off the device, Airazor- NOW!"

Eclipse immediately twirled around from her position near the gizmo, facing Nighteye and pointing her talon-guns at him all in a split second.

Nighteye just stared, his gun still trained on Eclipse, although his posture now showed that he was less than sure of himself.

"H-how did you react so quickly to me?" he stammered. _I've never SEEN someone move that fast..._

"I was programmed that way," Eclipse smirked.

"...Programmed...?"

Eclipse chuckled darkly. "Do I have to spell it out for you? I'm NOT Airazor- at least, not the Airazor you knew. When Airazor died, Scourge took me in, gave me artificial intelligence, and then sent me back to you guys with a mission. I'm Eclipse now."

I had no idea Scourge had that much technical knowledge in him...Nighteye thought to himself.

"Well, so Scourge is quite the schemer, there..."

"Oh, it gets better," Eclipse said, "I'm not bound by the rules of those Transformers with sparks. Meaning..."

"...You no longer have a weak spot..." Nighteye finished darkly.

"Exactly. So, how about it, Nighteye?" Eclipse smirked, lowering her talon guns. "Wanna take a free shot at your former comrade? I'll give it to you just this once."

Nighteye narrowed his eyes. _Turning our own comrades against us... Scourge, are there no limits to your madness!?_

"Fine," Nighteye whispered, opening up fire on Eclipse's torso. The first couple of shots starting to eat their way through Eclipse's armor, but she was ducked a split second afterwards... sending Nighteye's last couple of shots right into Rhinox's gizmo.

"NO!!!" Nighteye cried, kicking himself mentally. _How could I not have SEEN that coming!?_

"My turn," Eclipse said calmly, unleashing a barrage of firepower Nighteye's way. Nighteye shuddered under the assault before transforming into owl mode. His targeting optic locked on Eclipse amidst the fire, and a huge blast of laser fire erupted from his other optic, hitting Eclipse right in the head and burning off the left side of it.

Eclipse didn't even wince, however, and continued her barrage of Nighteye, who was now forced to duck back behind the doorway- his wings now had so many holes in them he doubted he could fly anymore.

_She's like an undead corpse... Not even a direct hit to her slaggin' HEAD did anything! I guess I'll have to go after her the old-fashioned way..._

Roaring in pure fury, Nighteye transformed into his robot mode and charged back into the room, shaking the bullet hits to his torso off in his rage and slamming full-force into Eclipse, knocking them both to the floor. Nighteye relentlessly punched Eclipse's torso repeatedly, internally vowing not to stop until he was sure she was offline. He didn't get more than half a dozen punches in before Eclipse kicked him off of her. Quickly transforming into her vehicle/animal mode hybrid, Eclipse fired half a dozen missiles nearly point-blank at Nighteye, blasting him against the far wall. Nighteye slid weakly down to the floor, his chest leaking purple Vexoran blood profusely.

Eclipse hovered up to Nighteye's broken and beaten form slowly, relishing the moment.

"Y'know," Eclipse said, "Usually a 'bot in my position would say something haughty right now, but I like to cut to the chase. Bye."

Eclipse fired a final missile at Nighteye... or rather, where Nighteye was a split second ago. Before even Eclipse could react, Nighteye rolled out of the way, leaving the stones under him blackened by the missile impact.

_Gwh! He must have not been as hurt as he appeared..._ Eclipse thought bitterly, transforming back to robot mode.

Nighteye jumped up and sliced off Eclipse's left wing right as she turned to face him- in fact, had she not turned just then, he would have sliced right through her chest.

Wait... sliced?

"Where'd you get a sword!?" Eclipse screamed, launching herself at Nighteye, who parried her lunge by sidestepping and slicing off her right arm.

"Phht... you really think I'd be so big-headed to think that I could take whoever had knocked out Rhinox by myself? Perhaps I would have killed you if you had been any other Predacon, but I wasn't about to stake the entire fate of the Maximals on it. So I grabbed one of Grimlock's spare swords from storage before I came here."

"But... why didn't you use it against me before?"

"Quit buying time. I think you're smart enough to figure it out," Nighteye growled before advancing on Eclipse again. With his now-extended range, Eclipse couldn't get out of the way this time, and he sliced cleanly through her torso, cutting her cleanly in two places.

Nighteye continued to keep his battle stance as he watched Eclipse's two halves, looking for any sign of movement. After several seconds, he finally relaxed and kicked the robot halves over to the other side of the room before focusing his attention on the device.

"Sorry Rhinox, but you're gonna have to wait a little while," Nighteye murmured to himself, one of his hands clutching his bleeding stomach while the other tried to sort through the damage he had inadvertently caused earlier. "I've gotta get this repaired... now, how did Rhinox tell me to do this again? Oh, right..."

* * *

Scourge was worried. Slightly.

Oh, the battle was going marvelously. But he hadn't heard anything from Eclipse in nearly three cycles, even though she was required to report back in one cycle. Perhaps she had run into some trouble, but she should have been able to take care of it quickly...

Suddenly, his comlink crackled to life.

"S-sir! Eclipse re-re-reporting..."

"Eclipse, where were you?! You're supposed to report in every cycle!" Scourge scolded.

"I know, sir..." Eclipse responded, "But I r-ran into some... trouble. I have not been able to defeat him, sir, but... you need to e-evacuate their troops from the premises! Immediately!"

"WHAT!?" Scourge roared. "WHO could you not handle!?"

"N-Nighteye- but please! Hurry! I'll get out by myself-"

Eclipse's message was interrupted as Scourge ripped the comlink out of his arm and threw it onto the ground.

* * *

"Ahhh... there we go!" Nighteye replied, reconnecting the last pair of wires. "This should work, now... C'mon, please..."

Nighteye shut both of his optics as he pleaded. Slowly, he reached over to the button, pressing it.

Nighteye winced, expecting a huge force field wave to hit him.

But nothing happened.

Again.

Before Nighteye could try to figure out what had gone wrong, a warning flashed on the emitter's small monitor.

"Warning...? Talk about bad timing... must have mis-wired the time clock, or something... Anyways... Emitter 49-7C, tell me what's wrong."

"E-e-energy-gy signature de-device not wo-orking. Secondary th-thermal scan device online-ine. Th-ermal scan lo-osing power quickly."

"Slaggit!" Nighteye cursed. "That means it'll no longer be able to pick up any Pred signature, just any Transformer that has a warm-blooded alt mode..."

"Po-ower will fa-ade in 2.3 c-cycles."

"It'll have to do," Nighteye muttered, pressing the emitter's button again.

* * *

Dinobot was cornered.

Rattrap, the 'bot who had been covering his back, had been taken out by a shot to the head. Dinobot wasn't sure whether Rattrap had bought the farm or not.

But he was certain of one thing: he was about to.

At least six Preds had him pinned against the wall, and most were taking turns punching him in the head. It certainly wasn't long now until Dinobot's face caved in.

Suddenly, Dinobot felt a huge pulse wave slam into his back, and then everything faded into black.

* * *

Rhinox stood outside the entrance to the Ark, watching with an impassive face as the bodies of Rattrap, Beastbot, and Bruticus being lowered into the lava.

Had his makeshift body been equipped with hands, Rhinox would have saluted like all of the other Maximals present.

The three Maximals had all died in the line of duty- died in what was supposed to have been the Maximal's last battle.

"Supposed to" being the key words, there.

Nighteye's last-ditch effort at reactivating the emitter had worked. The emitter had converted all of the present Predacons into Maximals- all of the Predacons that had warm-blooded alternate modes, at least. According to Nighteye, he hadn't been able to get the actual signature detector working again, and had to rely on the secondary thermal-scan backup system.

So now the sides were evenly matched again. The scales of power were balanced.

All of the Predacons that had remained Predacons after the pulse wave- the ones with cold-blooded alternate modes- had quickly realized that their own former comrades were suddenly turning on them and fled the cavern. The Maximal army- and it could now be called an army, as it was three times its former size- had immediately followed the Preds and taken back the Ark and the surrounding area.

That was a week ago.

Temporarily splitting their forces between the Ark and the alien site, with constant communication between both places to ensure another surprise attack would not take place, the Maximals had cleared out any remaining Predacons that were too injured to retreat.

Rhinox had ordered that no quarter be given, and none was. The six or so badly injured Predacons were executed the next morning.

After that business had been taken care of, Rhinox had ordered the alien site destroyed, so that the Predacons couldn't tamper with it in the future. The Maximals could not keep their forces stretched between two places forever, so they had to choose one place or the other, and the Ark was the obvious winner.

Finally, with the army's new size, Rhinox had established a more formal and permanent chain of command. He was the leader, with Nighteye his second-in-command. Grimlock was the general overseer in matters of battle strategy, while Prowl made sure the base and its systems ran smoothly. And disputes amongst any Maximals were to be settled by Sigma Prime, who had proven to be one of the most level-headed of them all in the past couple of weeks.

As Rhinox's optics settled over the rapidly-melting form of Beastbot, his thoughts turned to Ramulus. The ram had been unusually emotional since the battle, refusing to talk to anybody and staying holed up in his personal quarters. Rhinox understood why, of course. Beastbot had been Ramulus' only friend, and now that he was gone... Ramulus was alone. Even though he was surrounded by more Maximals than ever.

_Just like me..._ Rhinox thought sadly as he watched the lava eat up the last remains of Rattrap.

Now that the funeral ceremony was over, the Maximals present slowly dispersed, going back to some duty or another.

Ironhide, however, trudged up to Rhinox, obviously reluctant to begin speaking.

"Um... Rhinox... Dinobot, Silverbolt, Gryphtron, and Tigerhawk are leavin' now. Do you want us to send them an escort until they can get far enough away from 'ere where the Preds' wide-range scanners won't be able to detect 'em?"

"No," Rhinox bitterly replied, surprising Ironhide.

"B-but..."

"They knew that this was the only way out, Ironhide. If their radically idealistic sense of 'honor' is keeping them from realizing that this is better than having the entire universe being unraveled by the Preds, than this base has no place for them."

"Well, to be fair, sir... you really didn't tell many of us until AFTER the plan had already occurred."

"Because THIS is what would have happened!" Rhinox burst out. "We'd have had any ignorant Maximals deserting us before the battle began! And we can stand to lose a couple Maximals now a lot easier than we could have back then!"

"So... you want us to say goodbye to them now then, sir?"

"Yes," Rhinox growled. "And tell them that they can watch their OWN backs from now on."

"Yes, sir," Ironhide replied, saluting before running towards the entrance of the base to say goodbye to his comrades one last time.

_Yes, we won alright, Rhinox got that part right... but at what price? _


End file.
